New Urban West unveils environmental report for Harmony Grove development

DAVID FRIED - Staff Writer

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ESCONDIDO -- A plan to add about five times as many homes to
Harmony Grove as there are now would meet proposed growth
requirements without significantly affecting the environment or
rural character of the area, according to an environmental report
the developer and county released Thursday.

New Urban West plans to build a 742-house community in the core
of Harmony Grove, a 922-acre area west of Escondido that remains
mostly open space with only about 150 houses sprinkled along its
narrow, winding roads.

"We're in sync with the planning policy direction of the county
for land use and (traffic) circulation for this area," said Tom
Zanic, vice president of New Urban West. "There's nothing we're
doing that's contrary to it."

While Harmony Grove Village would add a significant number of
homes to the rural enclave, it also follows the county's General
Plan 2020, a work in progress on how unincorporated areas can help
accommodate the county's population growth in coming years. The
so-called "smart growth" plan aims to concentrate new development
around existing roads and infrastructure in order to minimize
suburban sprawl.

Under the proposed 2020 plan, Harmony Grove would absorb needed
development in North San Diego County. That growth, however, hinges
on a village concept, with denser housing concentrated in the
center and sparser development with more open space at the outlying
area.

The village plan was hatched as part of discussions between
county planners and community members. Harmony Grove Village, Zanic
said, is simply the realization of that idea.

"Typically, the developer builds their own plan," Zanic said,
"but in this case, we're the implementer of the community's
plan."

In addition to the homes, the development would include 210
acres of park and open space, 41,500 square feet of commercial
space, a fire station, equestrian trails and a sewage treatment
plant.

Overall, environmental impacts from the development would not be
significant, based on county and state standards, according to the
report. And in some instances -- especially in the surrounding
wetlands -- mitigation measures proposed by the developer would
improve existing conditions left by agricultural activities such as
egg farming and fertilizer processing, the report concludes.

One key environmental issue raised by the report is traffic, as
Harmony Grove Village would add 9,290 trips to nearby roadways each
day.

However, the report concludes that the roughly four dozen road
improvements New Urban West plans -- including the addition of a
two-lane road through the area -- would adequately absorb the added
traffic.

The county's report concluded that a reduced version of the
village, with just 421 houses and no retail space, would have less
environmental effects. However, that design would not meet many of
the project's goals, including proposed improvements to the natural
habitat.

Mid Hoppenrath, who chairs the Village Committee of the Elfin
Forest/Harmony Grove Town Council, said her group still needs to
parse through the thousands of pages of documents included in the
report to see if there are "things we need to tweak."

But Hoppenrath added that the developer had worked cooperatively
with the community. And she said Harmony Grove Village would show
that "a rural, 100-year-old community could accept that much added
population and still come out not only with our rural character
intact, but as we hoped -- in better shape."

Some community members, however, say the project is too
expansive for the area.

Geoffrey Smith, executive director of the Escondido Creek
Conservancy, said he is still reviewing the environmental report to
see if there are any challenges his organization needs to raise
when it comes to traffic, density or the health of the creek, which
runs through the site.

The conservancy, Smith said, is not opposed to development on
the site. But he called New Urban West's plans an "end run" around
Escondido's slow-growth policy, which would have limited
development in Harmony Grove to about 300 houses.

Harmony Grove previously lay within the city's
"sphere-of-influence," a planning term to denote unincorporated
areas that will be annexed into surrounding cities as they
develop.

But in 2003, the City Council agreed to release the area from
its planning controls, after intense pressure from residents.

"Right away, there's the concern that they (New Urban West) are
capitalizing on that fact and adding about twice as much density,"
Smith said.

New Urban West has stressed that it was residents, not the
developer, who petitioned the council to be released. And Zanic
said that his company's plan calls for 100 fewer houses than the
850 allowed under the county's 2020 plan.

New Urban West plans to break ground on the project sometime in
late 2007, according to Jason Han, a company vice president.

Harmony Grove Village's environmental report is available for
review until Sept. 18 at the Escondido Public Library, 239 S.
Kalmia. It is also available on the county's Web site:
www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/ceqa_public_review.html.